Army of 'fact checkers' and 'proof readers' at NY Times fails again

2/9/2015

By Rick Moran

How out of touch with the rest of the country are employees of the New York Times? An editorial skewering Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was a typical Times hit piece on a potentially dangerous opponent in 2016 - typical except earlier versions of the editorial referred to Mr. Walker as "Mr. Scott."
Powerline's John Hinderaker calls the Times' error "one of the funniest blunders ever":

Via Don Surber and Logan Dobson, another knee-slapper from the editorial board of the New York Times. The paper published an editorial attacking Scott Walker yesterday. Nothing noteworthy about that, except that the Times kept calling him “Mr. Scott.” Here is a screen grab; Dobson tweeted, “NYTimes Edit Board ruthlessly attacks some guy named ‘Mr. Scott’ who they claim is the governor of Wisconsin”:

The paper eventually realized its mistake and corrected it, although without acknowledging the correction. I suppose it was just too embarrassing.
You can see how this kind of thing might happen; people occasionally have such synapse failures. But some people expect more from the Times editorial board. (I don’t, but some others do.) In fact, the Times editorial board is no better than, or different from, a minor-league left wing blogger. Actually, that’s where they get a lot of their material.
The serious point is one that we have made over and over. Does the New York Times not employ editors? Seemingly not. How many employees saw the “Mr. Scott” editorial before it was published? It is hard to believe that anyone saw it other than its author, the one who made the mistake. Isn’t the editorial board supposed to be a plural entity? Is it possible that multiple members of the board read the editorial and approved it, thinking that Wisconsin’s Governor is a guy named Mr. Scott?

The governor of Wisconsin is just not imporant enough to register on the Times' radar. Besides, he's a Republican. Those two factors make errors like "Mr. Scott" possible. Despite Walker surging in name recognition and prominence elsewhere, in New York, he's just another rube.
Interestingly, there is no mention of a correction on the Corrections Page. Apparently, even the public editor of the Times believes Wisconsin is governed by some guy named "Scott."
Delicious irony: The headline for the editorial is Gov. Walker’s "Drafting Error."

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